A long time ago, I really intended to approach this whole international cooking thing very practically. I was going to go cuisine by cuisine, showing what ingredients you should keep in your pantry and combine in different ways to make lots of different dishes. I haven’t exactly followed up on that, despite taking lots of…

Kimchi is absolutely essential to Korean cuisine – it highlights the balance of sour / sweet / spicy / salty that is desired and it’s eaten with almost every meal. Napa Cabbage Kimchi is the most common kind. I’m including a video version of the recipe here for the first time, we’ll see if I have the time to do this for other recipes in the future.

Cucumber Kimchi uses the same techniques as Cabbage Kimchi but takes less time to be ready and isn’t something you store long-term. Don’t make it in huge batches! Just enough to serve as a side dish. You will want to use small, firm cucumbers. The filling ingredients are up to you – chives, radish, and…

Living in Chicago, I’ve enjoyed learning more about different cuisines and beginning to see unexpected connections between them. This recipe, for instance, is about as Polish as Korean food is likely to get. To friends who’ve never eaten Korean food but are more familiar with Eastern European cuisine, I’ve said kimchi is like sauerkraut but…

Traditionally made with pork or tuna, I’ve included a vegetarian option for this popular Korean recipe. This is one recipe you don’t want to make unless you have leftover kimchi – if you try to make it with fresh kimchi, it simply won’t have enough flavor to make the broth taste right.

Most of the best-known Korean foods in America (besides Kimchi, of course) are meat-based. This is a really delicious way to prepare tofu, which is not something many Americans know how to handle – a bit of short frying and a delicious marinade make it satisfying as a side dish or a main dish, and if it works better it’s easy to make ahead.